Ex-U.K. deputy prime minister says he strangled mother's dog

LONDON — Britain’s former deputy prime minister, Lord Michael Heseltine, trended on social media Tuesday after admitting he strangled his mother’s dog.

Heseltine, 83, told Tatler magazine — a periodical that focuses on the lives of the upper crust of British society — that he was forced to defend himself when the Alsatian, named Kim, attacked him.

After the interviewer asked him about rumors that emerged in the 1990s that he "killed a dog with his bare hands after it attacked a child,” Heseltine replied: “Ah! I can tell you what that was.

“That was my mother’s Alsatian, Kim. I went to stroke him and he started biting me.

"If you have a dog that turns, you just cannot risk it. So I took Kim's collar — a sort of choker chain — and pulled it tight. Suddenly he went limp,” he continued.

"I was devoted to Kim, but he'd obviously had some sort of mental breakdown. There was no choice."

It wasn’t clear when the incident occurred. Britain's Press Association reported that a vet put the dog down the following day because it was violent.

"Beautiful dog. Huge, with a great thick coat,” Heseltine's wife, Lady Anne, added.

Heseltine, who owns the London-based Haymarket Publishing company, was a Conservative Party member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and served as deputy prime minister from 1995 to 1997.

He is credited with helping to bring about the downfall of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister in 1990 — he challenged her to lead the Conservative Party and lost by a slim margin, prompting her to resign to allow a more popular politician to replace her.

Heseltine, who earned the nickname Tarzan for swinging a ceremonial mace in the Parliament building, also said he shot 350 gray squirrels — which were imported to Britain from North America — in his garden over six months.

"These foreign intruders may have a Walt Disney appeal in London parks, but to us they are Public Enemy Number One ... and are shot without hesitation," he said in his wife's book Thenford, about their palatial home in the county of Northamptonshire.

British animal welfare charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said Heseltine would not be investigated over the dog incident because it could only probe and prosecute cases within three years.